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5 Social Media Marketing Trends to Watch Out For in 2018

March 5, 2018 No Comments

Make sure to keep an eye out for these five social media marketing trends that are taking over the digital marketing world in the upcoming year.

Did you know that on an average, we scroll through at least 300 feet (90 meters) of content daily? Not every brand’s campaign grabs our attention. It is a difficult and competitive game, as brands are trying harder to grab our attention, while our attention span has been reduced to a mere eight seconds. Brand strategy in the coming years will try more than ever to connect with their audiences across a variety of social platforms. It becomes imperative that your campaign works, more so taking into account the speed of feed. We have curated a list of five trends that we believe will impact your social media strategy in 2018.

Adopt Chatbots

https://giphy.com/gifs/11FyVJOvLleR5S

Gone are the days when chatbots meant unresponsive, hilarious and outright ridiculous software. Today, chatbots can do a lot more than just solve customer issues or order pizza for you. Various studies state that 20% of business content could be machine generated by next year. When we teach machines how to create authentic and engaging stories, the potential for advertising and marketing will become multifold. Chatbots interact with the users and deliver the solutions that they are looking for at the speed of light. Bots are developing to become smarter and empathetic. This engagement feels personal, from the user’s perspective. Chatbots are definitely a must-try social media marketing strategy in 2018 for your business.

Momentary content makes for good engagement:

Snapchat was the early adopter of momentary content. Instagram and Facebook followed suit, owing to the huge popularity of Stories format in a short time. These content are ephemeral and disappear in 24 hours. Brands are creating a whole new digital marketing strategy for their momentary content marketing. Having your stories appear at the very top of your follower’s feed keeps your brand at the top of their mind. Many brands do a live story session with a subject matter expert. This helps the user look out for the brand more so as to not miss an informative session. Ephemeral content marketing strategy is something that you should try in 2018!

Augmented reality boom

Augmented reality blurs the line between reality and computer-generated content by enhancing what we see, and hear. The adoption of augmented reality on mobile phones is a quick and easy way for brands to reach their target audience. Many brands are taking their products right inside the homes of users through exclusive filters. IKEA has released an app called Place which allows users to preview how the furniture would look in their homes before they buy. As more people get warmed up to augmented reality, more people will start to feel like they are missing out on things and want to become a part of it. However, you would also have to check where your strategy fits. Make sure your AR adds value for the user and don’t simply create one for the sake of it.

Influencers are here to stay

Influencer marketing has grown so much over the last two years that the popularity has made it difficult to know whom to trust. Consumers expect genuine reviews from genuine influencers. Brands must seek to work with relevant influencers with industry background or knowledge. Viewers are already bored of seeing brands engage popular influencers who promote teeth whitening and a mobile phone app with the same vigor. In 2018, try and create worthwhile relationships with influencers and maintain them. Influencer marketing is going to become more authentic with brands moving to real experts instead of social influencers.

Make more videos

We are addicted to mobile phones, and we love our videos. In 2017, 90% of the most shared content on social media was in video format. If you are not using videos yet, you will have to quickly start using them and master the art of capturing the user’s attention in the first 3 seconds. Video is the quickest and the closest way you will come face to face with your target audience. As with everything, you need to have a clear strategy before creating a video. Taking advantage of Facebook Live and Instagram Live is also a smart strategy. Ensure that the video is of the highest quality and engaging. You will also have to consider making the best design and make sure to add subtitles to attract users when they are watching with sound off.

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In News

Majority of Travelers Use Review Sites Before Booking

March 2, 2018 No Comments

It’s all about the reviews, so make sure yours are good.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

More than three quarters of travellers use review sites such as Yelp and Trip Advisor to conduct research prior to booking services.

This is according to a survey conducted by The GO Group, an international ground transportation provider.

The respondents were asked about site usage for accommodations, activities, events and ground transportation.

When asked about use of sites for hotels and other accommodations, 13% of respondents said they always check sites; 31% said they do so frequently, 34% said sometimes and 22% said never.

Fifteen percent said they always check sites for reviews about tours and activities; 25% and 34% said they do so frequently and sometimes, respectively. The results for checking on attractions and venues were similar were about the same.

Fewer people use review sites for ground transportation. Only 10% percent said always they did so; 23% said frequently and 40% replied sometimes.

The survey also asked how many people post on review sites. Just three percent said they always posted on the sites, nine percent do so frequently; 40% post sometimes and 26 % responded they have never posted on a review site.

“In addition to or even in lieu of obtaining information and referrals from close friends and family, more people are opting to use content generated by strangers as a guide for booking travel experiences, says John McCarthy, president, GO Group. “As reliance on online review sites continues to grow, it behooves all of us in the travel-related industries industry to regularly review and respond to posts, and monitor them for potential customer services issues.”

The GO Group LLC is the nation’s largest airport transportation provider, offering shared rides, private vehicles, sedans, charters and tours, serving some 90 airports in North America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe and transporting more than 13 million passengers per year.

This study shows just how much babysitting and care you need to put into your online reviews. Like you don’t already have enough to do!

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In News

Retail Marketers Are Bullish Moving Into 2018

March 1, 2018 No Comments

Nearly 90% of retail marketers will increase marketing spend this year.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

RetailMeNot has released result of a study showing how retail marketers will expand their content, use their marketing spend and what they are planning in 2018 to better engage and convert consumers.

This year, 9 in 10 retailers will increase marketing spend, and marketers will spread their increased budget almost evenly among marketing channels such as social, mobile, brand and display. This move reflects the need to ensure that every customer is receiving information in the channel of their choice. Interestingly, 93% of mid-sized retailers (between US$500 million and US$1 billion in annual revenue) are increasing their budget compared to 86% of large retailers (more than $1 billion in annual revenue) indicating an increase.

“Retail marketers are no longer thinking in channel silos. They are approaching commerce holistically with an understanding that consumers are channel-agnostic,” said Marissa Tarleton, CMO, RetailMeNot. “Delivering an experience that meets the consumer in the moment across the shopping journey will be the pathway to success for brands.”

Tackling New Trends and Challenges

While trends like virtual reality are still an exciting frontier, most retail marketers have their sights set on more realistic forward-looking trends. More than half of retail marketers surveyed believe improving mobile web checkout capabilities (52%) and offering exclusive promotions for mobile app users (51%) will positively affect sales growth in 2018. Additionally, voice-assisted shopping is an area that 39% of retail marketers plan to implement, with many retailers hoping to capitalise on increased use of smart home systems and smart speakers.

About 50% of retailers indicated they will use multi-touch attribution in order to better monitor the quality of traffic from their advertising investments. Further, retailers will become more bullish on advertising fraud as they look to ensure that their marketing is reaching the highest quality audience. More than 6 in 10 retail marketers (63%) will increase their direct media buying in 2018 in order to better monitor the quality of their traffic from advertising investments.

Holistic Approach to Increasing Sales

Retail marketers are wisely embracing mobile as a conduit for sales both on the phone and in physical retail stores. Based on our survey, retail marketers believe mobile is the key priority for positively affecting sales growth, and 72% will use mobile marketing to drive in-store sales. Further, 82% will rely on mobile marketing to drive in-app sales.

As marketers look to increase revenue in the coming year, their team structures and channel approaches will evolve to become more cross-functional. In fact, 50% of retail marketers say that their mobile marketing team falls under digital marketing within their organisation, up from 41% in 2016.

Finally, promotions continue to be top-of-mind for driving sales. Most retailers (76%) plan to increase the amount of promotions they are offering in 2018, and 86% will partner with websites and apps that focus on deals, cash back and loyalty programs.

“The convergence between physical and digital shopping will blend even further this year,” said Tarleton. “As retail shifts continue, delivering seamless shopping experiences—be it in-store or online—are critical to success.”

RetailMeNot is a savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of offers to save money while they shop or dine out.

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In News

Geico pre-roll ads interrupt again and again to grab attention

March 1, 2018 No Comments

By Kyle O’Brien

Geico has been trying to grab people’s attention online with its pre-roll ads, and it continues to do so with its latest, ‘Interrupt-a-palooza’ campaign that interrupts and then interrupts again.

The first Geico pre-roll campaign, ‘Unskippable,’ won plenty of accolades for its freeze-frame live action silliness and ability to entertain, where many pre-roll ads were highly skippable. It returned with ‘Fast Forward,’ which appeared to skip the middle of an ad to get to the point. ‘Crushed’ smashed the actors as the sets closed in, making for entertaining mayhem.

With ‘Interrupt-a-palooza,’ Geico and The Martin Agency again reinvent the now-tired pre-roll, cramming in more action, information and branding into 15-seconds than ever before. The company admits upfront that the ad is interrupting the viewer, then the spot in progress is also interrupted by more action, plus a falling logo.

‘Nighty Night’ sees two people in bed talking about how glad they are that they switched to Geico. They’re then interrupted by two people on elliptical machines crashing through their bedroom wall as they tout Geico’s 24-7 access. Both are then interrupted by a Geico logo that flies in from off camera. Other spots in the six-spot campaign follow a similar path.

“In the previous three rounds of pre-roll work, we played with the concept of time. First by skipping to the end, then fast-forwarding through the middle, and last year, condensing our ads,” said Neel Williams, vice president, creative director at The Martin Agency. “This year, we took a different approach, but still kept things very self-aware. Rather than apologize for the interruption, we thought it would be fun to lean into it.”

Associate creative director for the agency, Mauricio Mazzariol, added: “Getting interrupted before watching an online video is not exactly a Ferris wheel ride. So, these new Interrupt-a-palooza ads are supposed to bring some humor to the issue by embracing the disruptive nature of pre-roll and taking it to a whole new level.”

By Kyle O’Brien

Sourced from THEDRUM

In News

Over Half of Millennials Check Snapchat Daily, Much More Than Boomers and Gen Xers

February 28, 2018 No Comments

Social media preferences differ by generation, but most users spend their time consuming – not creating – content on social media apps.

More than half of millennials (53%) say they check Snapchat daily, which is three times more than Generation Xers (18%) and eight times more than baby boomers (7%), according to new data from The Manifest.

Baby boomers prefer Facebook over Snapchat, and they check Facebook more than millennials. More than 9 out of 10 of baby boomers (93%) open the Facebook app at least once a day, compared to 85% of millennials.

The findings indicate that preferences for certain social media apps differ by age group. However, Facebook’s overall dominance – with nearly 90% of all social media app users saying they check it at least once a day – demonstrates how Facebook made its platform appealing to a variety of users.

“Facebook invested considerable resources over the last 10 plus years in making an experience where everyone can find value in the platform,” said Josh Krakauer, founder and CEO of Sculpt, a social media marketing agency.

In contrast, Snapchat’s emphasis on short-lived content and the camera as a communication tool attracts younger users, and millennials in particular, who want a more personalised and unfiltered social media experience.

Snapchat appeals to younger generations who are used to getting the specific information they want, when they want it. Older social media app users may be more comfortable consuming content television-style, where what you see and when you see it is partially decided for you.

“As Facebook has catered to everyone in the world, Snapchat has doubled down as being a place that still feels raw, unfiltered and personal,” Krakauer said.

What Are Smartphone Users Doing on Social Media Apps?

While users spend a lot of time on social media apps, they don’t often publish content. The largest percentage of respondents (36%) say they most commonly use the “like” or “favourite” features on social media apps.

This finding correlates to the “90-9-1” rule of internet content, say experts. “[The rule] says that 90% of the time we just consume content, 9% of the time we interact with content, and only 1% of the time we actually share something,” said Sheana Ahlqvist, lead UX researcher at PhD Insights, a user research agency.

Simply liking or favouriting content on social media is a relatively seamless behaviour, requiring little motivation. The easier an online action is, the more likely a user is to complete it.

“The liking and favouriting is like saying ‘bless you,'” said Alex Levin, co-founder of L+R, a Brooklyn-based creative agency. “You can do it in an action that isn’t offensive.”

In addition to exploring app user behaviour, the survey helps businesses interested in building an app learn from the success of social media apps.

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In News

High Impact Digital Marketing Tips to Sell More

February 27, 2018 No Comments

If you have a sales event coming up, like the end-of-season sales, then here are the tips you need to know.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

The actual benefits of designing commercial strategies around events like America’s Black Friday or China’s Singles Day improve market platforms and strengthen the domestic economic market because it’s a great opportunity to encourage consumption and sales.

On Black Friday, for example, thousands of companies from different industries tag along with the commercial event and offer large discounts on their goods and services. However, competition is rife. An offer can lose its meaning when another company offers a better one, and what’s more, businesses must not only participate in Black Friday, but really know how to stand out and attract consumers.

So how do you as a marketer get your business to stand out?

Here are some tips from Adext. They deploy and optimise online advertising campaigns on Google, Facebook, Instagram and thousands of websites to increase the sales of SMEs that have limited resources for the activities.

1) Plan a strategy: It’s not enough to offer irresistible discounts on events like Black Friday… You need a promotion strategy with a clear action plan and execution dates. You must be clear on what discounts and incentives you’ll promote, how you’re going to put them across, the digital platforms you’ll use, who you’ll target, when and why. The what, how, where, when and why questions are key to developing any action plan. Come up with answers to them while always keeping the goal you want to achieve in mind. In this case, it’s sales.

2) Research your competition and make sure to offer something really attractive: You could offer a 10% discount, but if your main competitor offers 25%… You can imagine the outcome. If you want to take the lead, look at what they’re doing and ask yourself how you can beat their discount and/or add more value (without affecting your profit margins). You could give your prospects something of value like a gift for their loyalty, or an extra incentive for them to buy more. Also, don’t forget to let your imagination roam and build your offer or promotion around a creative concept.

3) Build Anticipation: Teaser campaigns are wonderful for building your target audience’s curiosity. Don’t reveal your discounts, offers or incentives too soon… Let your prospects discover what they are as anticipation builds. They should be interested and intrigued to find out what you’ll offer them on your sales event day. There are several examples of clever, catchy strategies where they invite their prospects to go to Snapchat to discover what the 10 star products reduced to €10 are.

4) Send your prospects emails: You can send a few emails before the big sales day (to build anticipation), and other reminders before the day arrives.

Here are three tips to make your email marketing campaign a success:

Make sure to add an attention-grabbing title or subject line to your email. An email subject line you see all the time, like “Check out our discounts!” will go unnoticed. But if you can entice the reader with something like “I don’t want to freak you out, but you’ll regret it if you don’t take advantage of this” will definitely pique their curiosity and make your open rates go up.
Once they open your email, there must be something of interest for them to look at and read… The body of the email must be pleasant to look at, and easy to read and scan. Use short paragraphs, bold letters, headlines, subtitles, vignettes, images, and of course: good copywriting.
Add a CTA (Call-To-Action), where you specify what you want the reader to do once they’ve read your email. For example, you might write: “Our discounted products will be available in store until we’re out of stock. We’ll be ready to serve you when you arrive” or “Buy your Christmas gifts NOW and make sure you don’t get burned in January”. This action-oriented copy should stand out on the page. And if you have an online store, add a link to it.

5) Take advantage of the power of social networks: There is no doubt that you need to be where consumers spend most of their time. Where’s that? In this digital world, it’s on social media. Join the conversation and interact with your audience. Include the most relevant hashtags (e.g. #Black Friday or #SinglesDay or #Summersales) on your posts, so that prospects looking for discounts and deals can easily find you.

6) Let digital advertising bring you the clients you need: Digital advertising no longer has to be complicated. And it can give you the results you’re hoping for. Adext is the first Artificial Intelligence platform in the digital advertising space that can automate the entire process of creating, managing and optimising your ad campaigns on Google, Facebook and Instagram.

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In News

5 Social Media Ad Tactics You Should Be Using

February 27, 2018 No Comments

By Ronald Dod

Some businesses love it, others hate it, but no business can run without a social media strategy. Even if social media is not your primary source of leads or sales, having a strong presence on social media can help strengthen your brand overall. It will help you gain credibility and social proof with the help of reviews, and help your customers set brand expectations.

For many businesses, the tough part about creating a social media strategy is advertising. There are way too many variables to account for, and there seem to be new rules being launched all the time. In hope of helping you improve your ads, I’ve put together a list of the top 5 social media tactics. Let’s get started!

1. Layer Your Targeting Options

Targeting is one of the most tricky parts of creating campaigns. Interests, behaviors, life events, demographics … there are so many ways to target an audience on social media! So, what’s the right solution? The answer varies from case to case, but there’s something you can do to help you narrow your results and be more targeted: Layer your targeting.

2. Target “Warm Leads”—Followers, Friends of Followers, and Page Interactions

The idea behind targeting followers, friends of followers, or page interactions is to target “warm leads” to increase the chances of conversion. The people in those targets have either heard of your brand, interacted with it, or know someone who is already following your brand, which makes them more likely to buy.

Targeting followers is a good tactic if you have a decent number of followers. As expected, these warm leads will be more likely to convert than cold ones, which means higher conversion and lower cost per conversion. Another underutilized target is “friends of followers.” I’ve gotten really good results for this target when I combine it with another layer of targeting. For instance, below, you can see the same target audience as the previous point, but with the added “friends of followers” layer:

This target is particularly effective because the audience could see that one of their friends already follows the advertiser, which provides social proof or credibility. This is one of my best performing targets for many clients.

The last target audience you should try is a page engagement custom audience. Start by going to the audience tab and selecting custom audience from the drop-down menu. Then, select Engagement.

Once selected, you’ll see various options to create your audience. Test different ones to find out which one performs best. For good measure, start with the Facebook page engagement audience.

Then you’ll be able to choose your conversion window:

Finally, you’ll get the option to create a lookalike audience. I would skip this step for now until you see how the target performs. Now you’re ready to target people who have engaged with your Facebook page! Similarly to the followers target, these users are warm, so they’ll be more likely to convert.

3. Try a Lookalike Audience

As the name implies, lookalike audiences help you target audiences that look like another audience. There are many ways to create a lookalike audience. You can create one based on website traffic or engagement, or even create one from a file—which is the option we’ll discuss here. The first audience I would test is based on an existing customer list.

Simply export all your customers from your website platform and save the file. Then you’ll be able to upload it to Facebook to create a custom audience and create a lookalike audience from it.

There’s a new option to upload a file with customer’s lifetime value. To use this option, just make sure to add a column with your customers’ total spend. Based on that spend, Facebook will help you find new customers that look like your most valuable customers.

Once the custom audience is created, you’ll be able to select it to create a lookalike audience. The lower the percentage of the lookalike audience, the more similar it will be to the actual list. Test this audience with the other, once it’s created.

4. Test Lead Generation Ads

Lead ads allow advertisers to capture leads right on Facebook. This type of ad works particularly well for B2B businesses to capture lead’s information. Test run these types of ads with videos instead of single images, to potentially increase conversions. If you don’t have any videos or software to create videos, try using Facebook’s slideshow creator to create a video from a series of images.

5. Use Collections

Collections is a mobile-friendly ad format that allows users to get an immersive mobile experience.

Just with a tap, these ads open a Canva, similar to a Page, where advertisers can showcase products extracted from a product feed, tell a brand story, or show a lifestyle photo shoot. I’ve found them particularly effective for eCommerce, using the grid layout to display a product feed. I usually use it together with a video slideshow, containing some of the products showcased in the grid layout.

By Ronald Dod

Sourced from Business 2 Community

In News

Influencers are Earning Billions in the New Creative Economy

February 26, 2018 No Comments

The new study highlights that the huge economic impact is just “tip of the iceberg” with independent creators.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

So here it is, another study from the USA about the power of the new economy. While it doesn’t feature what Europeans are doing, we can use the information to see just how fast the new creative economy is moving. Put it this way: that horse has bolted.

The new report released by the Re:Create Coalition finds that 14.8 million independent, American creators earned a baseline of almost $6 billion from posting their music, videos, art, crafts and other works online in 2016. The research is only a snapshot of the entire New Creative Economy, analysing just some of the biggest online platforms: Amazon Publishing, eBay, Etsy, Instagram, Shapeways, Tumblr, Twitch, WordPress and YouTube.

Despite the study being conducted in the USA, YouTube’s top earner is British. Daniel Middleton (DanTDM) brought in $16.5 million in 2017 alone. 26-year-old Dan, otherwise known as TheDiamondMinecart, posts daily reviews and gameplay videos plus some other silliness that kids love.

“Before the internet, a creator was forced to rely on traditional gatekeepers like movie studios and the recording industry to be successful. Today, anyone with a creative idea and a wifi signal can be successful and make money on the internet, reaching millions of people around the globe almost instantly,” said Re:Create Executive Director Joshua Lamel. “This analysis is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding the full economic impact of the New Creative Economy. However, its findings demonstrate that millions of Americans rely on the balanced copyright policies that support internet platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Etsy in order to earn billions of dollars from their creative work.”

Selena Gomez is the number one person on Instagram, with close to 70 million followers, more than any other celebrity.

Said study author Dr. Robert Shapiro, “The development of this multi-million user network and multi-billion dollar ecosystem for independent new creators reflects the power of the internet. Even with these highly conservative estimates, this study demonstrates the economic power of the new creative economy and its enormous potential for continued growth.”

For each platform, only a single component of how users can earn income was studied, due to limited public data and insufficient information. Independent creators earn billions of dollars each year online through website ads, sponsorship/influencer compensation, social media traffic, direct sales and other methods, but this study analysed only one revenue-sharing model per platform.

For the full report is here.

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In News

The Big Difference Between the Ads People Love and Ads People Hate

February 26, 2018 No Comments

By Joe Lazauskas

A few years ago, researchers at Johns Hopkins University examined Super Bowl ads to see who was getting the best bang for their buck. A Super Bowl ad on CBS costs $166,666 per second. That’s $10 million per minute.

The Super Bowl is one of the few occasions when TV audiences are actually happy to watch the commercials. Because the ads are so expensive, advertisers put a lot of effort into making them great. So whereas we skip commercials during the rest of the year, we’ll run back from the kitchen with a mouthful of potato chips to catch Super Bowl commercials.

Of course, not all Super Bowl ads are great. The Hopkins researchers wanted to know what made the biggest difference between a Super Bowl ad people loved and one they didn’t. They took several years of commercials and catalogued them by various factors: humor, length, sexiness, subject matter, use of cute animals, and other elements. Then they looked at which ads were most popular to see which of these factors mattered the most.

What they found was surprising. It turns out that neither jokes nor cute animals nor sexy ladies made a Super Bowl ad popular. The best ads were the ones that had strong narrative arcs.

In other words, the best ads were great stories.

But let’s not underestimate the cute animals, since they play a big part in how much storytelling is upending advertising.

It Sounds Like a Revolution

In 2014, BuzzFeed was in the midst of launching a new kind of advertising agency. Two years earlier, the company hired Ze Frank—one of the internet’s most successful early video creators—to launch BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, a studio that would create original video for the digital media startup and its advertisers.

Most advertising videos shops follow an age-old model: They sell a flashy idea for an ad spot to a client, invest a huge budget to produce the spot, and buy media to support it. The entire exercise is an educated act of faith.

BuzzFeed and Frank, however, wanted to do things differently. Since BuzzFeed’s beginnings in November 2006, founder Jonah Peretti had been obsessed with the science of how content spreads online. BuzzFeed constantly tinkered with how they created and distributed content, making slight adjustments to headlines, story structure, and content strategy. This allowed them to skyrocket to more than 150 million readers, surpassing the digital reach of major legacy publishers like the New York Times.

BuzzFeed never ran banner ads. Rather, it created content on behalf of advertisers and doubled down on original videos as its primary advertising offering.

When Purina came to BuzzFeed in 2014 to run an advertising campaign, Frank didn’t pitch them on a big spot. Instead, Frank proposed to create a series of short videos. The two companies agreed to make a set number of videos and test to see which one resonated with BuzzFeed’s audience. The idea was to test a bunch of different storytelling approaches against a broader theme until they found a hit, just like BuzzFeed had always done with its non-advertising stories.

In a Fast Company profile, former BuzzFeed CMO Greg Cooper recalled showing a two-minute comic video they created to a Purina executive. The exec audibly gasped when he saw it, surprised by how different the video was from a traditional ad spot.

The video showed an older cat schooling a new kitten in the ways of the world, explaining the strange behavior of their humans and the best spots in the apartment to hang out. (“On special occasions, they will leave the underwear drawer open to signal their appreciation . . . of me,” the older cat tells the kitten. “To be clear it’s my spot. It’s perfect in there. It’s like sleeping in underwear. Well . . . that’s exactly what it is.”)

The video, entitled Dear Kitten, would become one of the most famous pieces of social advertising to date, generating more than 29 million YouTube views. (Its sequels have racked up more than 40 million additional views.) But the most interesting thing about it is how it was developed: through a rigorous series of trial and error tests. The first four videos BuzzFeed made for Purina flopped. It took a half-dozen videos before they developed a hit.
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“It sounds like a revolution,” Cooper said during a SXSW keynote. “Large corporations don’t like revolutions. They like predictability. They like incremental growth.”

But those corporations are quickly changing their tune. They’re realizing that the most effective way to find a hit is to strategically create content, test how it’ll connect with audiences, and then optimize the approach based on what they learned. Because if you’re going to spend millions to put your story in front of people, you better make sure it’s a story they’re going to love.

This is an excerpt from The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming Into the Void, and Make People Love You” by Contently’s Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow. Get it today.

Image by Evan Qu / Unsplash

By Joe Lazauskas

Sourced from The Content Strategist

In News

Are you a Tourism Marketer? Here’s What Travellers are Hashtagging the Most

February 23, 2018 No Comments

If you are marketing anything in the tourism game, this is what you need to know.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

For those that are lucky enough to get away on holiday or go on an extended travel stint, we can predict what actvities you might be doing after a new study has been published by Hotels.com

The company have used a data-crunching bot to track what people are hashtagging the most on their sojourns. More than five million brags globally were analysed using a combination of Tweet data, Instagram posts and travel keywords and destinations mentioned on other social media. So here are the results.

Worldwide travellers are all about the culture: they enjoy musing around museums (300,000 brags), old-town charm (170,000 brags) and a spot of sunshine (130,000 brags), but they can also be found in floating restaurants, erotic museums and night markets.

TOP 10 GLOBAL THEMES

Museum
Rooftop bar
Old Town
Modern Art
Opera
Sunshine
Olympic Games
Cathedral
Gallery
Ballet

This travel bragging trend echoes the findings from the recent Hotels.com Mobile Travel Tracker report, which revealed that one in six travellers search social media before their trip to plan the photos they’ll take. And 56% of people surveyed admit to spending more than an hour a day on their smartphones while on holiday.

While travellers naturally brag about taking in the tourist hotspots and cultural offerings, more people than ever are sharing foodie ‘grams, shopping stories and luxe posts.

#Foodporn
You’re never more than an Insta-scroll away from #FoodPorn and the brag lists are brimming with culinary treats. Cakes in Stockholm and curry in Toronto spice up the brag lists, and New York steak and pizza both made the cut. Perhaps more surprisingly, enchiladas proved twice as popular as modern art in Mexico City, ice cream scooped 10% of all San Francisco brags and Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant in Hong Kong took second place in the Hong Kong chart with more than 20,000 brags.

Shop ’til you drop
Shopping is a must-do for most travellers. Those visiting Paris brag more about the Rue Vieille du Temple, famous for its boutiques, than Le Louvre! Other top shop-spots included Bal Harbour in Miami, the Harbour City mall in Hong Kong, vintage shops in Melbourne and the stylish Cecile Copenhagen fashion brand made the Danish capital’s top 10.

Five-star luxury
When travellers check into a posh, luxury hotel they naturally want the world to know. The stunning 5-star Ritz Carlton in San Francisco topped the city’s brag list, the Four Seasons in Singapore proved brag-worthy and the Park Hyatt came in at number one in Seoul – most likely for its awe-inspiring rooftop pool.

Scott Ludwig at Hotels.com said, “Bragging about your travel experiences on social media has become the norm – if you didn’t get social kudos out of it, it didn’t happen!”

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